Sylvania



(N M d l T. J. & E. H. HUGHES.

T. J. HUGHES, administrator of E. H. HUGHES, decd.

' REFRIGERATOR BUILDING.

No. 352,872.- Patented Nov. 16,1886.-

llllllllll i /El WITNESSES:

N. PEYERS. Pholc-uihugrzpher. Waamngmm [3.0.

UNITED STATES PATENT OF IC THEODORE J. HUGHES AND EDWARD H. HUGHES, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENN SYLVANIA; THEODORE J. HUGHESADMINISTRATOR OF SAID EDWARD H. HUGHES, DECEASED.

REFRIGERATOR-BUILDING.

' SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 352,872, dated November 16, 1886.

Application filed March 27, 1885. Serial No. 160,210. (No model.)

" Figures Land 2 represent vertical sections at a right angle to each other of a refrigeratorbuilding embodying our invention. Fig. 3

represents a horizontal section in line maFig.

1, Fig, 4 represents a horizontal section in 1 line y y, Fig. 1. Fig. 5 represents a vertical section of the fines of the refrigerator detached and on an enlarged scale.

Similar letters of reference indicate corre sponding parts in the several figures.

Our invention consists of a refrigeratorbuilding having an ice-chamber in its upper story or apartment, the same being in communication with the underlying stories or apartments in such manner that all the stories can be cooled, while, if desired, the cold air may be cut off from any story or apartment and the refrigerationsuspended therein. A further provision is that of conveying warmed and foul air from each storyor apartment to the ice-chamber, where it will be cooled and purified.

Referring to the drawings, A represents an ice-chamber in the upper floor or apartment of a building, and B G D E represent rooms or apartments below the same to be refrigerated or cooled, the walls of the chamber and cooling-rooms and their ceilings and floorsbeing properly insulated or lined with non-conducting material. Between'the side walls, F, of

0 the ice-chamber and side walls of the building are fines-G, and between the top of said walls F and the roof or ceiling of the building are passages H, whereby air may enter the icechamber from said flues G. The floor of the 5 ice-chamber is perforated, grated, or slatted,

the floorsof the different apartments in such manner that each flue opens into a different story or apartmentthat is to say, one set of flues ends at a point below the ceiling of the apartment- O, and another set stops similarly 5 5 in the apartment D. and another set similarly in the apartment E. Each flue is providedwith doors or shutters J at the top and bottom. thereof, so that the supply of cold air may be regulated or entirely shut off, said fiues furthermore ending at points below the ceilings of the apartments that they are intended to cool, so that the cold-air currents do not interfere and drive back the warm air which collects at the ceilings of the apartments. From the ceiling of each apartment rises a series of warm-air fines, K, also formed of or lined with non-conducting material having a deadair space between the said lining or an inner wall and the walls of the fines, and-provided at top and bottom with doors or shutters L, and terminating at or in the flues G on the sides of the ice-chambers.

The operation is as follows: When the chamber A is supplied with ice and all of the flues 7 5 are open, the cold air descends into the apart: ment or room B, and then by the fiues H into each apartment below, said air forcing the warm air to the ceilings, where said warm air enters the fines K, and is thus directed to the fines G, and consequently to the ice-chamber, where it is again cooled and returned as cold, air to the apartment B and distributed to the other apartments, OD E. The warm air which oollects'in the upper part of each apartment passes directly to the fiues G, and thence to the ice-chamber. If it is desiredto cease the cooling of any apartment-es, for illustration, the apartment Dthe cold-air flues H, leading to said apartment, and the warm air flues K, lead- 9c ing from the same, are closed at top and bottom, and thus the refrigeration in said apartment'is suspended. In the course of time said apartment becomes warmer; but as the fines I passing through it are made of or with non- 5 conducting walls, the temperature ofthe air passing through said fiues is not affected. If the fiues of the apartment E are left open, said. apartmentwill bekept cold. In large coolingrooms illuminating-gas is often used for light- [00 ing the same. \Ve utilize the heat of the same to assist in causing the desired circulation of air throughout the refrigerator. For this purpose the gas-burners are placed under or close to the Warm-ai r ti ues,thus creating an increased upward draft in said tines.

Our invention is applicable to any building of sufficient strength and size without necessarily employing the entire building. Any intermediate story or part of a story may be used for purposes other than cold storage or refrigeration, it being only necessary that if there are rooms belowthe story so used which are to be cooled there be communication by flues between each room and the ice-chamber above. Thusin a five-story building with a cellar the first orground floor maybe reserved for general business purposes, while the cellar below the first floor and the floors above the first floor may be cooled by the ice-chamber in the top or fil'thstory, and ot' the stories to be cooled any story or all stories below the fourth story can be cut off and refrigeration suspended when desired. I

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, 'is

the ceilings of said compartments to the upper portion of said ieechamber, cold-air fines leading from the floor of the compartment next be low the ice-chamber to the lower portion of the other compartments, the said tlues being formed with dead-air spaces between the inner walls or linings and the outer walls, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

T. J. HUGHES. E. H. HUGHES.

Witnesses:

JOHN A. WIEDERsi-IEIM, A. P. GRANT. 

